This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2002-46370, filed Aug. 06, 2002, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an air conditioner, and more particularly, to an air conditioner having a hot/cold water producing device, capable of heating or cooling room air in accordance with a selected mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, there has been widely used a method of heating water by heat generated when burning fossil fuel or of heating water using an electric heater, in a hot water producing device. In addition, there has been proposed a hot water producing device using the principle of an air conditioner. Such a hot water producing device is designed such that a refrigerant is compressed in a compressor to produce a refrigerant having a high temperature and a high pressure, and heat is transferred from the high temperature refrigerant to water so as to heat the water.
Such a conventional hot water producing device using the principle of an air conditioner will be described in the following with reference to FIG. 1. As shown in the FIG. 1, a refrigerant is compressed to produce a refrigerant having a high temperature and a high pressure in a compressor 102. Thereafter, the refrigerant sequentially passes a hot water producing heat exchanger 104, an expansion valve 106, and an evaporator 108, and then returns to the compressor 102. In the hot water producing heat exchanger 104, heat is transferred from the refrigerant to water. That is, relatively low temperature water absorbs the heat from the high temperature refrigerant, so the temperature of the refrigerant is reduced and the temperature of water is increased. While the refrigerant fed from the hot water producing heat exchanger 104 sequentially passes the expansion valve 106 and the evaporator 108, the phase of the refrigerant is changed to a gaseous phase with a low temperature and a low pressure, and the gaseous refrigerant then returns to the compressor 102.
Water, absorbing heat from the refrigerant in the hot water heat exchanger 104, is stored in a hot water storage tank 112. The stored hot water is supplied to a required place through a hot water supply pipe (not shown). When water of the hot water storage tank 112 is consumed, water is replenished from an external water supply source. A circulation pump 110 is used to forcibly circulate water between the hot water storage tank 112 and the hot water producing heat exchanger 104.
Such a conventional hot water producing device using a refrigerant uses the principle and the basic construction of an air conditioner, but does not provide an air-conditioning effect. Further, the conventional hot water producing device serves to produce only hot water, so it is not versatile and is inefficient to use.
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide an air conditioner, which is provided with a hot/cold water producing device in addition to a hot water producing device, thus heating or cooling room air in addition to supplying hot water.
Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The foregoing and other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing an air conditioner comprising a compressor compressing a refrigerant to produce a high temperature gaseous refrigerant, a hot water producing device to produce hot water by performing a heat exchanging process whereby heat is transferred between water and the high temperature refrigerant fed from the compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger performing a heat exchanging process whereby heat is transferred between the refrigerant and outside air, and a hot/cold water producing device to produce hot water by performing a heat exchanging process whereby heat is transferred between water and the refrigerant fed from the hot water producing device, or to produce cold water by performing a heat exchanging process whereby heat is transferred between water and the refrigerant fed from the outdoor heat exchanger.